JERRY HARRIS, nationally-booked hypnotist with over 26 years’ experience, will once again be performing at the Clark County Fair. Photo courtesy of Jerry Harris
ADAM THE GREAT has been weaving his brand of fast-paced magic with comedic timing and true showmanship since the age of 18. Clark County fairgoers can expect children to be pulled into the act to witness card tricks and a variety of other family-friendly skits. Photo courtesy of Adam the Great
Nationally-booked hypnotist Jerry Harris will once again perform at the Clark County Fair and he will be joined on this year’s entertainment lineup for the second year in a row by the eye-popping illusions and skilled magic tricks of Adam the Great.
Harris entertains audiences with his high-quality, family-friendly shows at venues like colleges, county and state fairs, night clubs and high school graduations. Although his show in its current form has been successful for more than 17 years, Harris graduated from the Hypnosis Training Institute of Los Angeles in 1988 and has authored over 24 self-help programs.
This marks Harris’s 10th year at the Clark County Fair and he’s just as excited to perform for area residents as he was on his first booking.
“That’s probably my favorite thing about the Clark County Fair. We have huge crowds and a lot of people who want to volunteer, so that’s a great thing to us,” Harris said.
Audiences can look forward to an addition to Harris’ show where he turns volunteers into a guest entertainer like Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé, Usher or Blake Shelton. To make Miley Cyrus family-friendly, he’s modified his instructions to each participant and in the 20 shows he’s used Cyrus as the guest entertainer, he’s had a 100 percent success rate. The part where he has three to four young men under hypnosis become Miley Cyrus’ backup dancers regularly sparks roars of laughter from on-lookers as they watch each person’s interpretation.
The favorite part of Harris’ performance is something he’s rarely able to do but this reporter has heard first-hand accounts from family members who’ve seen the Russian ballet skit. It is side-splitting. He prefers to use 12-15 men in their 40s-60s and hypnotize them to be Russian ballet dancers, who actually speak Russian to each other on stage. He has a Russian interpreter translate what they are saying and the results have the audience going crazy.
“I guess I’m blessed. I get to do something that I love to do and it’s always going to be a little bit different because the personalities are so different on stage,” Harris said.
Harris performs two shows daily at the Family Fun Stage. Weekdays at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Weekends at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
For more information about Jerry Harris, go to http://www.jerryharris.net/.
Adam The Great
Since the age of 18, Adam the Great has been weaving his brand of fast-paced magic with comedic timing and true showmanship at fairs, festivals, private functions and corporate events. As a two-time U.S. Department of Defense entertainer, Adam the Great “mystified the troops” overseas providing a much-needed distraction and contagious laughter.
Clark County Fair ticket holders will encounter Adam the Great strolling the grounds performing intimate table magic for residents along the midway before each scheduled daily performance.
His shows will consist of a lot of audience participation, his version of Aladdin’s flying carpet and some comedy danger. Children will be pulled into the act to witness card tricks and a variety of other family-friendly skits.
Adam The Great enjoys fair audiences because of the diversity of ages. Anyone from 1 to 100 could be in the audience and family members really get into the act when a 10-year-old niece is brought up on stage to work with Adam.
The first part of Adam’s act is possibly his favorite because of how fast-paced the magic is and then at the end he wows the audience by producing an American flag from every twist and turn of the routine.
“The Clark County Fair is special to my heart because it’s my hometown fair,’’ he said. “My mom was one of the nurses in the first aid area. I used to cause a ruckus and now I’m a paid performer. It’s come full circle.”
Over the 23 years that Adam has been performing, he believes the root of a good entertainer is whether they’re having a good time. Adam said that if the entertainer is having fun, the audience will be with him or her every step of the way. It doesn’t appear that anyone will be losing track of Adam the Great any time soon.
Adam the Great performs daily on the Community Stage and Westfield Vancouver Mall Kids Park Stage with about an hour of midway magic strolling before each performance.
For more information about Adam the Great, go to http://adamthegreat.com.
